THIS IS JUST AN UPDATE OF LAST SEASON'S THREAD . NO NEW RULES - JUST A RECAP REALLY!

First thing to say is you need to get organised, with a spreadsheet or at least pen & paper, to keep track of your buys/bids and money spent, as there are grave penalties for spending too much money or not having a full squad at the end of the auction!

RULES

(1) YOU HAVE A KITTY OF £100m AND YOU MUST SELECT A SQUAD OF 14 PLAYERS WHICH MUST CONSIST OF :
1 “TEAM” KEEPER
5 DEFENDERS
5 MIDFIELDERS
3 FORWARDS.

(2) YOUR TEAM (Starting XI) MUST CONSIST OF A 4-4-2 FORMATION AND THEREFORE THERE IS ONE "RESERVE" PLAYER FOR EACH POSITION (you don’t need a reserve keeper as you buy a team’s squad of keepers so whoever plays for your team automatically plays in your fantasy team)

(3) INJURED, SUSPENDED OR OTHERWISE NOT SELECTED 'FIRST-TEAM' PLAYERS WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE REPLACED BY YOUR 'RESERVE' PLAYER IN THAT POSITION.

(4) 12 TRANSFERS ARE AVAILABLE DURING THE SEASON AND AFTER THE INITIAL PLAYER AUCTION THERE WILL BE AROUND 6 "TRANSFER WINDOWS" (dates to follow).

(5) POINTS ARE AWARDED AS FOLLOWS:-

2pts ANY PLAYER STARTING A GAME AND PLAYING AT LEAST 45 mins.
1pt ANY PLAYER MAKING AN APPEARANCE OF ANY OTHER KIND
4pts A GOAL SCORED BY A FORWARD
5pts A GOAL SCORED BY AN ATTACKING MIDFIELDER (AM)
6pts A GOAL SCORED BY A MIDFIELDER
10pts A GOAL SCORED BY A DEFENDER/KEEPER
2pts AN ASSIST
4pts AN ASSIST BY A DEFENDER/KEEPER
4pts CLEAN-SHEET FOR A DEFENDER/KEEPER (must start and play 75mins +)
3pts BONUS POINTS FOR A HAT-TRICK
-1pt EACH GOAL CONCEDED BY A DEFENDER/KEEPER
-2pts A PLAYER SCORING AN OWN-GOAL
-6pts A PLAYER SENT OFF
1pt GOALKEEPER SAVING A PENALTY (saved, but not off-target misses)
-1pt PLAYER MISSING A PENALTY (saved or off-target)

(6a) DEFINITION OF AN ASSIST - ANY TOUCH (NO MATTER HOW SMALL) BY A TEAMMATE IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO THE SCORER SCORING.
(6b) DEFINTION OF A GOAL/OWN GOAL- A DEFLECTED SHOT THAT WAS ON TARGET BEFORE DEFLECTION IS A GOAL.
A SHOT OFF-TARGET THAT’S DEFLECTED IN IS AN OWN GOAL, WITH AN ASSIST TO THE SHOOTER.

[RULES 6a and 6b ARE BASED ON MY JUDGMENT REGARDLESS OF ANY ‘OFFICIAL’ RULING BY PL/FA etc.]

THERE'S ALSO A CUP COMPETITION WHICH SHADOWS REAL F.A. CUP TIES BASED ON THE WHOLE OF YOUR SQUADS PERFORMANCE IN THOSE GAMES, AS OPPOSED TO YOUR STARTING XI, SO BE SURE TO PICK A WELL-BALANCED SQUAD IF YOU WANT TO PROGRESS IN THE CUP.

AND FINALLY, AS IT SAYS IN ALL THE BEST COMPETITIONS, IN THE EVENT OF ANY DISPUTES, PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE ORGANISERS DECISION IS FINAL!

HOW DO I BUILD MY SQUAD?

(1) THE DRAFT

We will be using a draft to select the first 4 players in everyone’s squad.There is a separate thread explaining how the draft works for those unfamiliar with draft systems. This needs to take place on a date when as many competing managers as possible can be around at the same time The plan at present is for it to take place around 10pm-ish on SUNDAY 29 JULY. (speak now if this is bad for you!!! As a last resort you can leave an ordinal lists of bid preferences with me but please try to be here yourself!)

(2) THE PLAYER AUCTION

Now that each squad has their 4 “star players” you now need to fill the other 10 spots in your squad. This is done by having a player auction. Here is a summary of how the auction will work and a few tips for you all too.

After the draft picks have been finalised the board will be opened up for each manager to start a new thread which relates to a player which you want to bid for. Each thread will just start with the players name in the title and your minimum bid (usually £2m). Bidding will then proceed similar to an Ebay auction. Anyone else interested in that player can raise that bid. After a £2m bid, the next bid must be £3m (or more); this process will continue in all player threads until the auction ends. The person who has made the highest legal bid when the auction closes will "own" that player.

The Auction can open as soon as the Draft has ended (see above) and I propose to close it around 11pm-ish on THURSDAY 2nd AUGUST.
Again please let me know if time is an issue, as it can - and often is - amended to suit the majority of managers

(3) SEALED BIDS

At the end of the auction period, if you dont have a full squad of 14, you can "buy" ANY other PL player not already taken, by making a “sealed bid”. This is just a PM to me stating player wanted and how much of your remaining funds you want to bid for him.

WARNING: Please ensure that you do NOT exceed your overall budget of £100m for your squad!! I will be keeping a check on how much each manager has spent on his squad but remember you MUST have 14 players; so if for example you only have 9 players at the end of the Player Auction you must make sure your total bid on those 9 players does not exceed £90m, as you will need £10m in reserve to buy your 5 "make up numbers" players at £2m each. You should be keeping some sort of record on how much you have spent after each stage of the process.

The only limitation on who you can buy is the overall £100m limit. You can blow nearly all your money on 2-3 massive signings and have lots of “make up the numbers” players at the end @ £2m each. A more pragmatic approach would be to spend around £7-8m on each player and have a very balanced squad. A course somewhere between those 2 extremes is probably the way to go but that is where your own strategy comes into play.

Plan at present is for the Sealed Bids to close around 11pm on MONDAY 6th AUGUST.

(4) TOP-UPS

At this stage any players still not bought will remain in the "player pool" and will be available at £2m as “top up” signings. In case of multiple £2m bids for the same player, I will analyse each manager’s squad and then rank them by priority, so that 'weaker' squads will have preference.

You need to PM me the names of the players you are interested in and I will let you know asap if you are successful or not.

THis whole process must end by 10pm THURSDAY 9th August as the season starts on Friday night!

PENALTIES and FORFEITS

1) (Remembering that you must make up your squad of 14 players out of the £100m and the minimum price for any player is £2m) any manager who at the end of the auction exceeds the budget will have a player of my choosing removed from their squad at least equal to the value of the excess. He will then have to be replaced by another player from the "pool" for £2m. A 10 point penalty will also be imposed for each £m over-budget.

e.g - if at the end of the auction you’ve spent £105m on 12 players, to make up your squad to 14 you would need 2 more "pool players" (£4m) = total spend of £109m. I would then remove from your squad a player of at least £9m value and you will be penalised -90 points (this would make it very unlikely that you would win the game)

2) If a manager has more than 1 keeper, 5 defenders, 5 midfield or 3 forwards in his squad, a player of my choosing relating to that position will be removed from his/her squad. A £2m penalty will also be imposed for EACH such infringement.

e.g - if due to overbidding on certain positions you end up with 4 forwards and 6 defenders, I will remove one from each position (without compensation) and you will be fined £4m.

MIDFIELDERS/ATTACKIMG MIDFIELDERS (Auction)

Especially important is to check in the right thread for certain players. Obviously Evans is clearly a defender and van Persie is clearly a forward but there are certain players (especially in the format that we use) that are borderline. Some midfielders are considered forwards and vice versa, so I have created a separate category called Attacking Midfielders (AMs) –

Last year some of us had the problem with not being able to post in quick succession which made us non competitive in the closing stages of the auction. Could please the ones in charge change the board settings accordingly.

Last year some of us had the problem with not being able to post in quick succession which made us non competitive in the closing stages of the auction. Could please the ones in charge change the board settings accordingly.

This is a good point and only affects those who are Lounge Members. The limit is 30 seconds between posts.

To get around this, I have amended permissions for Udit and yourself. Please can you check this by making two quick test posts in one of the player (GK, defender etc) forums?